Pages

Friday, August 26

Looking for my GMC

Some of my writer peeps have been floundering in
their writing recently. Searching for the muse, the time, the inspiration, the
sheer strength to deal with it all… And I’ll confess I’m there with them. I
know I just released a book, which is a thrilling culmination of months and
years of effort, and maybe I'm simply resting on my laurels as a result. However, as
the saying goes, “You’re only as good as your last book”… which translates into
a stress-inducing mantra of “just keep writing.”

Exceedingly stress-inducing when you’re not writing.

It has been at least a month—maybe more-- since I’ve written a word. I desperately
need to work on book number three because, at the arduous pace I’ve set, it won’t
come out until 2018! But every time I consider working on my story, even though
I’m already several chapters into it, I think “Meh…”

I blame the kiddos with their start-of-school-schedule-shake-up. I
blame the twenty-five other story ideas clashing in my head, keeping me too
distracted to really sit down and concentrate on writing any one thing. I blame
the rainy weather. I blame the sunny weather. I even blame myself because I
know I’m just making excuses.

If my heroine's GMC was a car, it would be this!

However, I think maybe the real blame lies with my heroine. I have my other characters figured out, except her. At present, she is just another woman who is seemingly along for the ride. My first two heroines dealt with
changing their careers… a sort of “what do I want to be when I grow up?”
crises. This third gal already knows what she wants: she's a hair stylist. And, even though I’m transplanting (ok, “abducting”)
her to an alien world, simply re-establishing her career on the new world isn’t
enough. She needs to be more than just a romantic accessory for the hero as he fulfills his character arc. She
needs to be her own character with her own arc.

She needs a Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. She needs her GMC. And we're not talking cars.

This is my struggle: what goal can my heroine have, besides getting off
the alien rock and returning to earth? This could be a minor conflict for my
characters… she wants to go home, he wants her to stay… but it can’t be the
main one. Otherwise, when the hero gets his way and she stays, she is (albeit
happily) defeated in the attainment of her one and only goal. And what sort of meager
character arc would this give her, much less my story as a whole?

According to Storywonk and other savvy people, a goal needs to be
something urgent, intensely meaningful, even life-or-death (unlike my personal goal at the moment, which is to find a bite of chocolate). The protagonist must reach
her goal no matter the cost. And the antagonist must stop her no matter
the cost (herein lies the awesome conflict that will carry the story). The protagonist must have
sufficient motivation for reaching her goal. Going back to earth to
continue a career as a hair stylist, when a sexy alien king wants you to stay
with him in his castle as his queen, isn’t much of a goal, motivation, or
conflict. It sounds more like a punchline to a joke!

Which is why I haven’t written anything on this story in a long while. I can’t fall
back on the same themes from my previous books. And I haven’t figured out what
this next book needs, except to know it needs… something.

I need inspiration: What sort of goals,
motivations, and conflicts pique your interest? What sort of
character arcs do you like to see in a story?

As long as I like the character, the goals don't have to be monumental. Sometimes I want them to have days that equal mine with an emotional hurricane thrown into the mix. Also, I like dealing with the loss of an old life and trying to find the niche in a new one.

What if there's someone she wants to get home to--aka--a boyfriend? Instant conflict as their goals are complete opposites. And then, per Liz just above, she realizes he's the wrong one and alien King is the right one. And just about the time the alien King is ready to relinquish her, she realizes she wants to stay. Kind of if you love something, set it free, if it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was.

What if she has vowed to never have children because of her bad childhood and the King is itching for an heir? Or, if you want something more life altering like she wants to donate her organs to charity?